


Giving Is Recieving

by sketchbooksandspace



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: F/F, Juno Steel Fluff Week 2018, Prompt: Date Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 21:26:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15128147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sketchbooksandspace/pseuds/sketchbooksandspace
Summary: In which most fruits are poisonous, sea slugs are a vegetable, and juno's just trying to get something nice done.





	Giving Is Recieving

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote most of this last night i need to stop procrastinating things that i enjoy

“Hey, Buddy, how about this one?” Juno snatched up a fruit from one of the market stalls, not quite sure what it was.

“No, Juno, I don’t think so.” Buddy had barely given a glance to what Juno had shown her, inspecting the material of a charcoal gray coat she was holding. She turned to the man who had been peddling the it. “Is this coat laser-proof?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Wordlessly, Buddy procured a laser, seemingly from nowhere, and shot the coat without breaking eye contact with the peddler. Juno had to leap backwards, a scorch mark appearing on the street where his left foot had been just a second earlier. A smoking hole appeared in the coat, large enough for Juno to poke his arm through it. “This coat is not laser-proof,” Buddy announced smoothly, throwing the coat back at the peddler.

As Buddy began walking away, Juno placed the fruit back where he’d found it, a little disappointed despite the show he’d just witnessed. He practically had to run to catch up to Buddy, who walked with long strides since being three heads taller than Juno apparently wasn’t enough. “Can you at least tell me _why_ you didn’t want that fruit?” Juno tried not to sound too sarcastic, but it had been like this _all day,_ and all Juno wanted was to find at least _one_ acceptable food item.

“Because that fruit is used for the extraction of a potent poison, as with _all the other fruits_ you’ve inquired about,” Buddy replied. Juno’s eyebrows shot upwards, but Buddy continued, sighing, “Juno, I don’t know what you're planning, but fruit is not going to accomplish _anything.”_

“Well, I dunno, I’ve heard some fruit is pretty great at accomplishing killing people.”

Buddy just rolled her eyes.

 

* * *

 

The Big Guy was waiting where Juno had set up for them to meet.

It was an abandoned building that Vespa had shown to the rest of their little group; there was only one room, empty except for an inexplicable stone statue of a fat bird that was taller than Juno was. This place wasn’t where they lived, but it was sometimes used as a meetingplace of sorts. And ‘meetingplace’ was the perfect descriptor for what Juno was using it for, now.

“Buddy isn’t giving me anything,” Juno said without preamble. “Nothing at _all.”_

Taking his eyes off of the magazine he’d been reading, the Big Guy nodded in what Juno thought was supposed to be sympathy. “Vespa has been more cooperative.”

A sigh of relief built in Juno’s chest, but he didn’t let himself release it just yet. “Okay,” Juno said slowly, “what did Vespa say she liked?”

“Food.”

“That’s it? No specific meals, or even- like, dessert style? Or breakfast? Or, wait, she’s a real odd one, maybe she said she likes _brunch_ food.”

“She says she likes ‘food.’”

It took all Juno had not to punch a wall. “And you’re _certain_ that Buddy’s never said anything to you about what kind of meals she likes?”

“I am certain.”

That sigh of relief turned into a groan of frustration. “”Okay, okay. You know what? Just, just go to a shop and buy whatever’s on sale.” Then, he realized just who he was talking to. “Don’t buy everything that’s on sale, I mean, and make sure to get stuff from a few different food groups. Please.”

The Big Guy simply nodded. “Am I still supposed to meet you at the ground floor of the lighthouse?”

“Yeah,” Juno answered, heading for the door. “I’m going to stop by home base first, though, to get the cooking set you and Buddy got for me. The bar still has everything from when it was opened for the deal with Razbach, right?”

“Indeed,” the Big Guy said in agreement. “What you will need is in the storage room. If you have not arrived there by the time I have, then I will begin decorating the room myself.”

Giving a big grin, Juno opened up the door, letting the Big Guy go out first. As he disappeared into the bustling crowd, Juno remembered something. Standing up on his tippy-toes, Juno shouted, “MAKE SURE YOU GET SOME PASTA!”

 

* * *

 

So, it turns out that what was on sale at a Cerberus Province grocery store wouldn’t always be so… conventional. The Big Guy had come back with frozen frog legs, a vegetable called ‘sea slug’ that had no seeming connection to the sea or to slugs, a spice made out of ground up moth wings, and a few ingredients that only had packaging in various Outer Rim languages so that Juno could only guess as to their contents.

Buddy had apparently insisted that the one-time bar should have a working kitchen, which Juno was very grateful for. He couldn’t imagine having to cook over an open flame; he’d only tried it once, and it had only led to a larger open flame.

His attentions were split between the kitchen and the main room. He’d managed, with the Big Guy’s help, to clear the floor of all the tables except for one. For a while, he hovered in the door between the kitchen and the bar, shouting out advice for the Big Guy on where to put this or how to place that while also making sure that nothing was sticking to his pans or remembering how to make rice without that steamer he had back in his apartment.

Once the food was pretty much finished, Juno asked the Big Guy to go and fetch Buddy and Vespa. He then began piling everything onto plates, trying to lay it out in a way that seems professional. It didn’t really work, since the most professional plating Juno had ever seen was takeout, but, well.

He was just re-checking that he did, in fact, have the pills that let Buddy eat without her bursting into hives, when the door to the bar opened.

“-We are here.”

Juno peeked out of the kitchen, and got to see the look on Buddy and Vespa’s face when they saw the table that was set up for them. As the Big Guy led the two of them to their seats, Juno picked up two of the dishes- making sure he was carrying the pill bottle as well- and walked over to the table, setting the plates down with careful precision.

For the past week or so, Juno had been plotting with the Big Guy to give Buddy and Vespa a proper date night, complete with a nice dinner, as a thank-you for everything they’d done for Juno. The Big Guy was a big help, but the idea was Juno’s, and it was satisfying seeing it to completion like this. The single table had a plain red tablecloth, with silverware and napkins and glasses already laid out. One of the music machines was already playing some sappy tune, even.

“So this is what you were up to,” Buddy half-exclaimed, slapping a hand over her face.

“And there turned out to be no fruit involved,” Juno pointed out, placing the dishes in front of each woman, earning two _‘thank’s_ as he did so. “Unless you count sea slugs a fruit.”

Buddy raised an eyebrow as she uncapped the pill bottle. “Sea slugs aren’t fruits, darling, they’re _slugs.”_

“Uh,” Vespa interrupted from where she was busy tying up her hair, “they’re a vegetable, not a slug. They taste good, though.” To prove her point, once she’d finished with her hair, she stabbed a sea slug with her knife and took a huge bite out of it, grinning. “See?”

“Vespa, darling, your fork.”

“What about it?”

Like she would’ve done for nobody else, Buddy just laughed softly. Vespa joined in, too.

Curiously, Buddy took a bite of her own meal (using her silverware the ‘proper’ way, of course). Her eyes lit up with the taste, and she turned to Juno, amazed. “What _is_ this?”

“I call it ‘On Sale,’” Juno said with a bit of amusement in his voice. “Because everything was on sale.”

“Damn, this is _good,”_ Vespa, with her mouth full, pointed out.

“Thanks,” Juno replied, hoping he wasn’t blushing as much as he thought he was.

“And thank _you,_ Juno. Really.”

“It’s nothing,” Juno insisted. “Thank _you.”_

As Buddy and Vespa began sspeaking with one another, Juno slipped away as quietly as he could. Halfway back to the kitchen, he met with the Big Guy, who handed Juno a pleasantly warm but not scalding pot of Jasmine tea. The fact that Buddy and Vespa shared this favorite drink was the one piece of information that Juno and the Big Guy could glean from the two of them. Juno slipped back to the table and filled both of their glasses as they conversed quietly over soft smiles. He set the pot back on the table in case either of them needed a refill, and then slinked away.

The Big Guy was waiting for Juno in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. Wordlessly, the two of them passed around plates and the leftovers of what Juno had made, and they ate for a while, in silence. It was the good sort of silence, though; it was the kind that you could only have with a trusted friend, the kind that made you relieved after a long day.

They sat like that for a while, picking at their food and listening contentedly to the laughter and teasing that carried over from the other room. And of course Juno was a little put off that he’d put so much effort into a date that wasn’t even his to begin with, but that small discomfort had disappeared under a mountain of pure feeling of _correctness_ that came with Buddy’s and Vespa’s shocked but pleased faces, with their laughter, with the mirth in their voices.

Because there was something great about the two of them. Something that Juno admired, really. And to put in all of this work felt _worth it_ in a way that was nigh impossible to come upon in life. Sometimes, sometimes it felt good to focus on something other than yourself, Juno thought, if just for a while, if just to make other people happy.

After all, in that moment, Juno felt good. Really, truly good.

**Author's Note:**

> talk to me on tumblr at [martianantares!](martianantares.tumblr.com)


End file.
